A low click behind them told Jacob that they were no longer alone in the room. He turned and saw two tall, cloaked figures walk slowly into the room. The bound hybrids groaned more loudly, those who were still capable of moving strained against the straps that held them, the fear making the air sharp and buzzing around them. Pyra and Rilex rushed the two creatures and in an instant Rilex was off his feet, held in the air by some unseen force. Jacob ran around the side of the tables, getting behind the cloaked creatures. He aimed a kick directly into the center of the creature’s back, startling it enough that it stumbled and Rilex fell to the ground. Its hood fell away, briefly revealing its face. Jacob could see Rilex’s face change as he looked up at the being that had held him above the ground. He looked as though he were staring through time, witnessing something that he knew but couldn’t quite understand.
Jacob leaned down and grabbed onto Rilex, helping him to his feet through the stunned stillness that had come over him. Pyra had the other creature in a tight clash, the two of them thrashing against each other’s strength as the warrior slammed the cloaked creature to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye Jacob could see Eden rushing from table to table pulling away the screens that were in front of the hybrid’s eyes. As soon as they were freed from the images, the creatures strained harder against their binds. Some hung completely limp and Eden shook them, trying to revive them, though some were far beyond any help that she would be able to give them.
“Help them,” another of the hybrids said. “Save them.”
“Save them,” another said.
Soon the room was filled with the sound of the hybrids’ pleas for their help. The words seemed to taunt the cloaked creatures, creatures that Jacob could only assume were members of the Valdicians that Pyra had mentioned when talking about their king. They became agitated, looking around at the hybrids and demanding them to be quiet. One held up a hand toward a panel on the wall and all the hybrids cried out in pain. Rilex was fueled into action, throwing himself toward the creature so that he wrapped his arms around its waist and slammed it to the ground. Eden continued her way around the room, working now to release the straps that held them in place. The three men fought the Valdicians, combining their forces until the two lay in a mound in the corner of the room. Jacob stood, panting at the exertion, and turned his attention to the hybrids.
Eden had managed to release several of them, but they were still attached to the cords at their necks and temples. Jacob carefully pulled these cords away from one of them, cringing when a narrow stream of blood trickled across its skin from where the cords had attached.
“Go get Ciyrs,” he said to Eden. “Tell him that we need him down here.”
“Wait,” Pyra said.
Eden turned burning, streaming eyes toward her mate, a determined expression steeling them.
“No,” she said. “We have to save them. Aren’t you seeing what I am? Can’t you see that they are no threat to us?”
“I know,” Pyra said. “But if these were Valdicians, there are more. They are Ryan’s servants. Last night Jonah and Oro told me how they got here. They said that the Valdicians took over the ship when they were redirected to Penthos. Ryan communicated with them and told them that we were at the mercy of the hybrids here and would never make it to the planet to help them.”
Eden looked stung.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked.
“I didn’t want to scare you,” he said. “You seem to have forgotten that you are my mate, Eden. You are the most precious thing to me beyond my son. No matter what’s going on around us, you are always going to be my first priority. I will always do whatever I need to do to protect you and to keep you safe.”
Eden stepped up to her mate and he leaned down to kiss her.
“Come with me,” she said. She turned to Jacob. “Stay with them, please. Do what you can for them.”
They headed out of the room and Jacob turned back to Rilex. He was crouched at the side of the two Valdicians, pushing the hood back so that he could look into its face.
“Rilex,” Jacob said. “I’m going to look for another room. Wait here for Ciyrs. Try to get the cords out of as many of them as you can.”
The pleas to save the others were still reverberating through his mind and Jacob knew that he had to do what he could for them. There was more to this hidden section of the building and he needed to find it. The Valdicians had come from a door on one side of the room, and a gut reaction sent Jacob to the other end of the room. Just as he thought, he found another door mirroring the position of the first. It opened easily beneath his hand, telling him in Ryan’s arrogance he hadn’t even bothered to add a lock this far into his compound. The air in this section of the building was warmer still and Jacob felt the tightness of his skin begin to relax.
At first it seemed like there was no sound in this room, but the longer that he stood just inside the door the more that he became aware of a low humming sound punctuated by an occasional chirp like that of medical equipment. The light didn’t come on automatically as it had done in the other two rooms and Jacob returned to the first room to pick up the lightstick that Eden had dropped when attempting to help the captive hybrids. He stepped back into the room and adjusted the lightstick to its full vibrancy. The light created a halo of glow around him, but didn’t illuminate the walls, indicating that the room was far larger than he had originally thought. He walked to one side until the light he held touched the wall ahead of him. The bottom of the wall looked like a brushed metal trough that rose several feet off of the floor, but beyond that was glass much like the windows from the previous room.
It took only a few moments for him to realize that it was not one continuous window, but rather segments of glass that divided the wall into different compartments. Jacob took a step closer and drew in a sharp breath at what was contained behind the piece of glass just in front of him. Behind him he could hear the heavy footsteps of Pyra, Eden, and Ciyrs coming back through the clean room and into the torture chamber. He barely registered as they called his name and couldn’t open his mouth to respond to them. Instead he had been struck silent by the image of a pale woman wearing nothing more than a white sheath seemingly suspended in a standing position as she slept just beyond the glass.
Chapter Six
“Jacob!” Eden’s voice called, growing louder as she came into the room.
She stepped into the light with him and Jacob heard her gasp as she saw the woman in the glass tube in front of them.
“What is this?” she asked breathlessly.
Jacob shook his head.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I think it’s ‘the others’. I need more light.”
Eden ran out of the room and came back with a lantern. She walked around the edge of the room, illuminating the glass tubes along each area of the wall until she finally found a control panel embedded in it. She spread her hand and touched it to the screen and immediately overhead lights flooded the room. Jacob turned off the lightstick and tucked it into the bag at his hip. He felt horror roll through him as he turned slowly in the space, taking in ten tanks that lined each side of the room.
“This is how Ryan was keeping Aegeus,” Eden said.
“But why them?” Jacob asked.
He stepped up to the nearest tank and noticed a small screen on the wall beside it. A series of words and numbers seemed to indicate who this person was and vital details about her, but they were written in a shorthand that Jacob didn’t understand. He stepped over to the next tank and noticed something different about her that made dread sink into his belly. Moving on to the next tank only confirmed his suspicions.
“Oh, god,” he said, his eyes falling onto the woman’s rounded belly. “They’re breeders.”
Eden’s hand came up to cover her mouth and she shook her head.
“He said that he was splicing DNA into adults,” she said.
Jacob shook his head.
“He had to get the adults fro
m somewhere. He told you that he was doing breeding experiments.”
“He’s continuing the experiments of his ancestors,” Eden said. “They started the program after they took everyone from Penthos.” She was pale and visibly trembling as she stepped up closer to the glass and rested a hand on it. “These are human women,” she said. “They aren’t hybrid.”
“Get Pyra and the others,” he told her. “They need to see this.”
Eden didn’t argue. She turned and rushed back into the chamber where Jacob guessed the men were working to free the survivors. He continued along the row of tanks, doing what he could to check each of the women for signs of injury or distress. When he reached the center of the end of the second wall, he felt a pain tighten in his chest and his stomach drop. He pressed his hand to the glass in front of him, his eyes frantically moving along the face of the woman inside. Jacob knew that face. He knew each of the curves and the softness of her lips. He knew the long, dark eyelashes that brushed her cheeks and the delicate paleness of her skin.
“Phaedra,” he whispered. Tears formed in his eyes as he pressed closer to the glass, wanting to get beyond it to the woman who hung there, oblivious to his presence. “How did you get here? What happened to you?”
A moment later Eden, Pyra, Rilex, and Ciyrs streamed into the room followed by two other warriors. Jacob stayed close to Phaedra’s tank, needing to protect her.
“We have to get them out,” Eden said. “We can’t just leave them here. Ryan’s gone. They’ll die here.”
“And even if he wasn’t, leaving them in his hands may be worse,” Rilex said.
He stepped up to one of the tanks and ran his fingers along the band of metal that differentiated it from the one beside it, but Ciyrs held up his hand.
“We have to be careful,” he said. “We don’t know what he’s already done to them.”
Jacob turned back to Phaedra’s tank and rested his hand on it again.
“He’s right,” he said. “Ryan could have them on medications to keep them sleeping. If we wake them up too quickly it could cause serious damage.”
“We can’t take too long,” Pyra said. “We have to get out of here if any of us, including them, are going to have any chance of survival.”
“The wounded from the battle will need more rest,” Ciyrs said. “They can’t carry on yet. They are still recuperating from the healing, especially Jem. We’ll need to be here for another night at least.”
Pyra nodded.
“See if you can find out what Ryan has them under and how to save them. I’ll start a patrol around the entrances to the hospital and start the women collecting as many supplies as they can.”
Jacob reached up and touched the screen that contained the information about Phaedra. He hoped that it would tell him something about how to release her. No sooner had his fingers touched the screen than a light inside the tank turned on and Phaedra’s eyes snapped open. Jacob gasped and looked around the room. The lights in all of the tanks were illuminating one right after the other, and the women inside were waking. The troughs at the bottom of the wall made a mechanical grinding sound and a conveyor within it began to move slowly. After a few seconds, he saw small square packages appearing on the conveyor, apparently coming out of the wall where the trough attached.
The women moved simultaneously, bending their knees and reaching down to take the packages off the belt as it pulled in front of them. They didn’t seem aware of the others in the room with them even though their eyes were open. Once they had the packages, the women sat on the bottom of their tanks and opened the packages, unpacking food that they promptly began to eat in synchronized, systematic movements. After a few moments, the belt began to move again, bringing other containers to the women.
“Phaedra,” Jacob said, trying to get her attention. She didn’t respond, but reached forward to put her hand through the gap at the bottom of the wall to pick up the container on the belt. “Phaedra,” he said again.
When she didn’t respond, Jacob crouched down and touched his fingers to the back of her hand. The simple contact seemed to startle her out of the daze that was holding her. Her eyes widened in fear when she saw him and she pulled her hand back, pressing herself to the back of the tank as far as she could go. She whimpered and the sound triggered the women around her, bringing all of their attention to Jacob and Rilex. A few of the women cried out as they all tried to make themselves as small and inaccessible as possible. Those with swollen bellies wrapped their arms around them protectively, guarding the tiny lives within them even though Jacob knew these were not children that had been created in love or that these women would be able to raise on their own.
“Phaedra,” he said again, “don’t be afraid. It’s me. It’s Jacob. I’m not going to hurt you. You’re safe now.”
Phaedra’s tense, frightened expression relaxed and she slid closer to the glass. Her hand lifted to touch the window in front of her.
“Jacob?” she asked.
Jacob aligned his hand with hers on the glass and offered her as much of a smile as he could through the fear that was controlling him.
“How do I open the door?” he asked. “How do I get you out?”
Phaedra shook her head.
“I don’t know,” she said. “They don’t let us out very often. When they do, they put a code into the screens.”
Jacob stepped back and looked at the glass again, trying to determine how much of it was the actual door.
“Are you attached to anything in there?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said. “When feeding time is over it will put me back to sleep and suspend me again. You only have a few more minutes.”
“Is there anything in there that could hurt us? Gas or electricity?”
“No,” Phaedra said.
Jacob nodded.
“Move back against the wall and crouch down,” he said. “Don’t look back.”
Phaedra did as she was told and Jacob moved back several steps before running up and kicking the glass. It cracked, but didn’t shatter. He repeated the assault twice more and finally the glass fell away. He saw Phaedra wince as the shards of glass rained down on her, but she remained where she was crouched.
“Ciyrs,” he called. “Come here.”
The healer rushed up to him and Jacob repeated what Phaedra had told him. Ciyrs climbed up into the tank and carefully helped Phaedra to her feet, keeping her as far back as possible to prevent her from stepping on the broken glass with her bare feet. He examined her and discovered a set of thin rubber strands connected to the back of her neck.
“Take a breath,” Ciyrs said.
As Phaedra did as he asked, the healer pulled on the lines, removing them from her skin. She cried out slightly, but then seemed to give a sigh of relief when she realized that she was no longer attached to the tank.
“Hand her to me, Ciyrs,” Jacob said.
“I’m going to pick you up, alright?” Ciyrs said to Phaedra.
She nodded and he scooped her up effortlessly. The glass crunched beneath his feet as he crossed the tank and carefully handed her out to Jacob. Jacob gathered her close to his chest and carried her to the center of the room, wanting to get her as far from the tanks as he could.
“The others,” Phaedra said softly. “The others. Please, save the others.”
The words were the same as the hybrid’s and they sent a chill into his heart. He looked over at Pyra and the other warriors.
“Break the glass,” he shouted. “Get them to the back of the tanks and break the glass. Hurry. They only have a few minutes before they’ll be put back to sleep. Ciyrs, get the lines out of them and help them out. Be careful. These are breeders. Some of them are pregnant.”
Jacob tucked his head down against Phaedra’s and started out of the room amid the sound of glass shattering all around them. He had had enough. He didn’t want her to have to see the tanks again. Now that she was in his arms, he wanted her to know that she was safe.
&n
bsp; Chapter Seven
“What are you doing here?” Jacob asked Phaedra as he ran his fingers along her skin to check for any glass that might have embedded in her when he broke through her tank.
Phaedra looked at him through eyes so green it was as though they had been chipped from emeralds and rested on the soft creamy velvet of her face.
“I could ask you the same thing,” she said. “You were gone. You’ve been gone for five years. Your mother told me that you joined an expedition in Europe.”
Jacob felt the anger burning inside him again. Someone had questioned his disappearance. Phaedra hadn’t believed them. She had asked. It was his own mother who had let herself believe that what the company had said was true.
“I didn’t,” he said.
“Then what happened?”
Jacob looked down at her delicate hand in his and knew that he couldn’t explain it to her right then. She was already dealing with too much. She only needed to know that he hadn’t left her on purpose.
“I’ll explain it all later,” he said. “Tell me why you’re here. How did Ryan get you?”
Tears were shimmering in Phaedra’s eyes.
“I came for you,” she said, her voice strained with emotion.
“You did?” Jacob asked.
“I know we broke up a long time ago, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I know that it doesn’t make any sense, but when I heard that you had just joined up with some other excavation and left without coming back to say goodbye to anyone, I knew that it wasn’t true. I knew that something else was going on. Nobody would listen to me. They said that you didn’t need to say goodbye to me.”
It sounded challenging and almost painful for her to make that final confession and he saw her look away slightly as if trying to control her emotions before she looked back at him.
“I would have said goodbye to you,” he said. “I never would have left without seeing you again.”
Jacob & Phaedra's Story (Uoria Mates IV Book 2) Page 4
